NEW DELHI: In order to countervail the impact of unilateral tariffs imposed by the US, India is planning to seek global certification for its seafood. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification, an international sustainability standard, could fetch premium prices, up to 30% higher than earlier for Indian seafood.
The US, previously India’s largest seafood market, valued at $7.38 billion (35% of exports), implemented a crushing 59.73% tariff on Indian seafood sector, which eventually destroy the seafood industry.
In response, the Union government intends to allocate special funds through the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMSSY) 2.0 scheme to support MSC certification of 10 key Indian fisheries. National institutes, such as the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute(CMFRI), are providing technical assistance for this initiative.
The 10 priority fisheries category — some of which are deep-sea and coastal shrimps, squid, cuttlefish, Karikadi shrimp, threadfin breams, blue swimming crab, and octopus — are in the final stages of addressing technical gaps before certification.
India is expected to receive full MSC certification for these 10 categories in 2026.
“It was a tedious five-year process, and now we are going to apply for MSC certification in 2026,” said Dr Sunil Mohammad, a former principal scientist at CMFRI. The certification process incurs a cost of around Rs 20 lakh per category, and the government will bear half of the total expenses.
Kerala’s short-neck clam already there
Currently, India has only one fishery—the Ashtamudi short-neck clam fishery from Kerala—certified under the MSC. With this new push for MSC certification, India expects to regain its market share in Europe